1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a drive apparatus for driving optical discs (for example, CD-R/RW, DVD-R/-RW/RAM/+R/RW, etc.) serving as recording mediums to record a large amount of information in information equipment such as various kinds of computer system.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is customary that a disc apparatus housed within a personal computer generally includes a disc tray to load therein discs, this disc tray being configured so that it can be moved in the forward and backward directions.
On the other hand, there is a tendency that many slot-in system disc apparatus are used as a system without disc tray and these slot-in system disc apparatus are suitable for making a personal computer become thin and small. Since this slot-in system disc apparatus does not use a disc tray to carry a disc into the apparatus main body (load)/carry out a disc from the apparatus main body (unload), when an operator inserts the greater part of the disc into the slot, a loading mechanism of the apparatus main body can be operated so that discs can be automatically loaded onto the disc apparatus.
FIGS. 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings are plan views showing an arrangement and operation modes of a loading mechanism in a slot-in system disc apparatus according to the related art. In the arrangement shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, when an operator inserts a disc D into the disc apparatus, the disc D reaches the position shown in FIG. 1 while its height direction and its right and left positions are being restricted by a pin 100a provided at a tip end of a first swing body 100 and right and left guide bodies 101 and 102 and they are also being restricted by a pin 103a provided at a tip end of a second swing body 103 in somewhere of the movement of the disc D.
At that time, the first swing body 100 is pushed at its pin 100a provided at the tip end by the disc D and thereby rotated in the direction shown by an arrow 100A. Also, the second swing body 103 also is pushed at its pin 103a provided at the tip end by the disc D and thereby rotated in the direction shown by an arrow 103A. Then, a switch lever 104 is pushed by the end portion of the second swing body 103 and thereby rotated in the direction shown by an arrow 104A to energize a detection switch 105.
When the above-described detection switch 105 is energized, a driving device 106 starts to operate to start moving a first slide member 107 in the direction shown by an arrow 107A. In the first and second slide members 107 and 108, respective tip ends thereof are joined together by a slide joint member 109 and this slide joint member 109 is pivotally supported so as to swing so that the second slide member 108 is moved forwardly in the direction shown by an arrow 108A in synchronism with the backward movement of the first slide member 107.
As described above, when the first slide member 107 starts moving in the backward direction, in the first swing body 100, which is supported to this slide member 107 in a cantilever fashion, since its follower pin 100b is guided by a cam groove 107a of the first slide member 107, the first swing member 100 is rotated at a supporting point 100c in the direction shown by an arrow 100B, whereby a pin 100a provided at the tip end of the first swing body 100 is able to transport the disc D in the direction shown by an arrow 107A until it comes in contact with pins 111a and 111b of a disc positioning member 111.
At that time, since the pin 103a of the second swing body 103 is rotated in the direction shown by an arrow 103A, the pin 103a of the second swing body 103 is moved in the direction shown by the arrow 103A in synchronism with the pin 100a at the tip end of the first swing body 100 while supporting the disc D. Then, after the disc D was brought in contact with the pins 111a and 111b of the disc positioning member 111, the pin 103a of the second swing body 103 is rotated up to the position slightly distant from the disc D.
While operation modes in which the loading mechanism is operated when the disc D is loaded to the inside of the disc apparatus have been describe so far, the loading mechanism is operated in operation modes opposite to the aforementioned operation modes when the disc D is unloaded to the outside of the disc apparatus. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 2, when the disc D is placed at a predetermined position within the disc apparatus, if the driving device 106 is started in the reverse direction based on an unloading instruction, then the first slide member 107 starts moving backward in the direction shown by the arrow 107B and the second slide member 108 joined to the slide joint member 109 starts moving in the backward direction in synchronism with the first slide member 107. As a result, since he first swing member 100 is rotated in the direction shown by the arrow 100A and the second swing member 103 is rotated in the direction shown by the arrow 103B, the disc D is unloaded to the outside of the disc apparatus while it is being supported by the pins 100a and 103a provided at the tip ends of the first swing member 100 and the second swing member 103.
It should be noted that the disc D loaded into the disc apparatus is clamped by a clamping head 112 which can be moved up and down at a predetermined position. This clamping head 112 is integrated with a turntable 113 fixed to a drive shaft of a spindle motor 114. Further, the above-described spindle motor 114 is disposed on a frame member (not shown) and this frame member can be moved in the upper and lower direction by an elevation mechanism (for example, Patent Document 1).
[Patent Document 1]: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-117604